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Germany
History NSDAP dominate state from 1933, in cooperation with powerful military faction as part of the Regierung der Nationalen Konzentration (Government of National Concentration) after 1944. The removal of many of the more fanatical NSDAP and SS old guard from positions of power in July 1944 allowed Germany to issue the Prague Manifesto of November 1944, guaranteeing the survival of a Russian state purged of Jewish-Bolshevik influence. This in turn prompted the 'Beria Coup' against Stalin, and the Lavrenti Beria regime's subsequent surrender to Germany. Many career army officers blamed the ferocity with which the Soviets fought on the Eastern Front on the attitude of the civilian Nazi government to Great Russians and other Eastern peoples, the so-called Negerstandpunkt. On the Southern Front, Rommel's forces had moved rapidly through the Caucuses due to in large part to their relatively good relations with the local population. Collaboration had been facilitated through the establishment of puppet provisional governments for the Georgians and other Caucasian peoples. By contrast the harsh treatment of Ukrainians, Belorussians and Russians only served to prolong the conflict. Even anti-Soviet nationalist groups were alienated, and no real collaboration was offered. In April 1943 in a speech to his high command, Hitler made clear that he would not support the creation of an anti-Bolshevik Russian government-in-waiting. Despite their opposition to the way the war was being prosecuted, the disgruntled officers remained loyal, and limited their activities to pressuring sympathetic members of the civilian authorities: men like Alfred Rosenberg and Albert Forster. It was in fact the most radical section of the SS that moved against the government. On July 20, a faction of the SS apparnelty led by Emil Maurice attempted to assassinate Hitler and seize power, in order to negotiate an immediate peace treaty with Stalin. Due to the large numbers of Aryanised Mischlingen ('crossbreeds') involved (Maurice, Erhad Milch, Hans von Herwarth), the coup attempt was at first called the 'Mischlinge-Putsch'. The failure of the coup led to a major change in status for both the SS and the Mischlinge population of Germany. After July 1944, German Mischlingen were stripped of their citizenship in the same way full Jews had been. Forced relocation from the Reich was mandated, to British East Africa, French Madagascar or Japanese-occupied Birobidzhan. The power of the SS meanwhile was severely curtailed. The coup plot was not at first believed to go any higher in the SS hierarchy than Maurice. However, an investigation led by Arthur Nebe soon reveled that the Reichsfuehrer-SS himself, Heinrich Himmler was behind the entire putsch. Himmler was arrested while trying to escape to Sweden and committed suicide in captivity. The military allowed Hermann Goering to become interim chief of both the NSDAP and the Reich, before being replaced by the preferred nominee of the armed forces, Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. Friedrich Fromm, who had discovered and eliminated the coup plotters within the army, replaced Keitel, whose brother was implicated in the plot, as head of the armed forces, as well as becoming War Minister and Reich President. Erwin Rommel was placed in charge of the overall war effort. Arthur Nebe took over Himmler's job as head of the SS, while Wilhelm Stuckart replaced him as Interior Minister. Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Propaganda Minister Goebbels, though not involved in the Putsch, were removed from their posts due to their supposed inclination to make peace with the Soviets in order to attack the Anglo-Saxon powers. The main change in the prosecution of the war was the propaganda offensive. The condition of the population of the conquered east improved a little, while life became considerably easier for those eastern European political figures who enjoyed a decent following and were willing to collaborate with the Germans. Radola Gajda (born Rudolf Geidl), a marginal Czech fascist leader and Andrey Vlasov, a Red Army defector, were placed at the head of a Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Stepan Bandera, who had been imprisoned by the Gestapo for his declaration of an Independent Ukraine in June 1941, was released to form a Ukrainian national government. The Mongolia-based Russian Fascist Party leader Konstantin Rodzaevsky was approached to form a government-in-waiting for Russia. Baltic, Caucasian and Turkestani leaders received similar treatment. A new German regime willing to make concessions, was contrasted with a Soviet regime which remained committed to continuing the war at any cost. As Stalin would not accept any terms Germany would offer, and Germany would not tolerate a Russian government which included Stalin, a peace faction around Lavrenti Beria decided to remove this obstacle. Stalin and his closest supporters in the Soviet government were murdered and Beria declared the formation of a Government of National Salvation to replace the Communist Party dictatorship. Despite the loss of much of European Russia and the entire Pacific seaboard, the Beria regime was still in control of a large portion of the USSR, and expected to negotiate with Germany and Japan as a Great Power, albeit a defeated one. However Germany was not interested in the continued existence of a strong Russian state, regardless of its political complexion. The use of Germany's new 'Atomic' weapons on several cities of Central Asia brought negotiations to an end, and the Beria government made their unconditional surrender to the Axis. Pockets of resistance continued, especially against German forces. Japanese occupation was not viewed with the same horror as German occupation by most Soviet citizens, and so Japanese forces made far more rapid progress than had been expected. Rather than the Yenisei River forming the border between German and Japanese zones of occupation, Japanese forces flooded across Siberia as far west as the Ob River. After the war, Germany was the undisputed master of continental Europe. The Germanic nations of northern Europe (Belgium and the Netherlands, Denmark and Iceland, Sweden and Norway) were corralled into a Greater Germanic Reich, while the territories of Germany in Eastern Europe were reorganised as the Greater German Reich. Territories of the Greater German Reich *Grossdeutschland: includes the Altreich (Germany's borders of 1938), Austria, the Sudetenland and other formerly Czech territory, the bulk of the former Poland, formerly French Alsace and Moselle, several formerly Swiss cantons and small territories formerly belonging to Yugoslavia, Belgium and Lithuania. Population: c100,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Baltenland: established 1941 as the Reichskommissariat Ostland, changed to Baltenland in 1944. Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia) and a northern part of Gebietskommissariat Wolmar handed to Finland after the war. Reichskommissar: Hinrich Lohse. Population: c. 7,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Gotenland: established 1941 as the Reichskommisariat Ukraine. Includes the core of the Ukrainian Self-Administration under Stepan Bandera and the OUN. Reichskommissar: Alfred Frauenfeld. Population: c.15,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Kaukasien: established 1943 as Reichskommissarriat Kaukasus. Includes the self-governing homeland of Georgia. Reichskommissar: Arno Schickedanz. Population: c.15,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Moskowien: established 1943. Reichskommissar: Siegfried Kasche. Population: c.8,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Turan: established 1945 as Reichskommissariat Turkestan. Reichskommissar: Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer. Population: c.7,000,000. *Reichskommissariat Idel: established 1947 as Reichskommissariat Don-Wolga. Reichskommissar: Dietrich Klagges. Population: c.9,000,000. *Reichskommissariat West-Siberien: established 1948. Reichskommissar Wilfried Karl Strik-Strikfeldt.''' '''Population: c.19,000,000. *Protectorates of Bohemia and Moravia: the bulk of the former Czechoslovakia, administered as a single protectorate from 1939 to 1948 and subsequently as two separate territories. Under the control of a Protector and a pair of state-presidents. Reichsprotektor: Arthur Seyss-Inquart. Population: c.6,000,000. *Protectorate of Georgia: the Georgian Self-Administration within Caucasian Reichskommissariat, achieved 'home-rule' in 1966. Reichsresidentur: Karl Franz von Preussen. State-Leader (Batoni): Irakli III Bagration-Mukhraneli. Population: 2,000,000. *Government-General of Poland: the rump of the former Poland (known as Restpolen or the Reststaat) established 1939. Distrikt Galizien formed part of the Government-General between 1941 and 1944 when it was transferred to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (with small territorial concessions to Romania and Hungary). In 1965 the Government-General was abolished and its territory divided between neighbouring and newly created gaus of Germany proper. The position of Governor-General was held by two men: Hans Frank (1939-1944) and Albert Forster (1944-1965).